Shuttlecock



Feb. 1, 1955 B. EMERSON SHUTTLECOCK Filed April 16, 1949 6808198 B. Eauemoag y /2 maey United States Patent SHUTTLECOCK George B. Emerson, Boston, Mass.; Gertrude Alice Bailey, Olympia, Wash, executrix of said George B. Emerson, deceased Application April 16, 1949, Serial No. 87,915

Claims. (Cl. 273-106) be positively maintained when the shuttlecocks are not in use.

In accordance with my present invention, I provide a shuttlecock consisting of a body to which a flexible sheet is so attached that marginal tabs, with which the sheet is formed, are rearwardly disposed as flight controlling and body rotating wings. In practice, the sheets from which the wings are formed are of waterproof or water repellant stock that is relatively flexible so that the wings yield readily under the impact of the racquets but return immediately into their established position to control the flight of the shuttlecock. Such flexibility is essential both to ensure long life and to provide desired flight characteristics but creates two problems.

The first of these is that a wing that is sufliciently flexible to provide the correct flight characteristics of a shuttlecock may become so doubled or buckled by the contact of a racquet therewith that it does not straighten out and hence interferes with proper flight and the second of these is that such Wings, if stored improperly, may become misshapen and while they may be readily re-shaped, their appearance is affected.

In practice, I provide the flexible sheet with a flexible reinforcement terminating short of the trailing extremities of the wings so that those extremities may be much more flexible than the remainder thereof. This construction both minimizes buckling and makes possible desired flight characteristics not possible with wings of uniform flexibility.

In addition, I provide a container dimensioned to receive the shuttlecocks freely within it and having a supporting spindle. Each shuttlecock head has an axial passage to receive that spindle and preferably has a recess in its rear face dimensioned to receive at least a part of the nose of another shuttlecock body to enable a plurality of shuttlecocks to be compactly packed and securely positioned with their wings held against being deformed by contact with the container wall.

In the accompanying drawings, I have shown illustrative embodiments of my invention from which these and other of its novel features and advantages will be apparent.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a shuttlecock in accordance with my invention.

Fig. 2 is a view showing a vertical section through the shuttlecock of Fig. l and the packaging of shuttlecocks in accordance with my invention.

Fig. 3 is a plan view of the reinforced, flexible sheet which establishes wings when attached to a body.

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the body to which the sheet of Fig. 3 is to be attached, and

Fig. 5 is a section along the lines 55 of Fig. 1.

In accordance with my invention, I provide a shuttlecock body of any suitable light weight stock. I have shown the body 10 as having an axial bore 11 extending from its nose through its rear face and the rear face as having a recess 12 dimensioned to receive at least a part of the nose of another shuttlecock body 10 as suggested in Fig. 2. The .body 10 may be covered with any suitable material 13 and has, in its rear face, spaced slots 14 which are preferably radially located.

In Fig. 3, I have indicated a typical flexible sheet 15 to be attached to the body 10. The sheet 15 has a centrally located aperture 16 of a diameter slightly less than that of the body 10 and a plurality of spaced tabs 17 separated from each other by webs 18. The sheet 15 includes a reinforcement 19 preferably in the form of a flexible sheet of the same size and shape as the sheet 15 to which it is attached and having pointed tabs 20 extending part way along each tab 17 of the sheet 15 with the apex of each tab 20 being located substantially along the center line of the tab 17 which it reinforces.

When the reinforced sheet 15 is drawn over a shuttlecock body 10 and the excess stock established by the webs 18 disposed in and suitably anchored in the slots 14 of the body 10, the tabs 17 become disposed as flight controlling and body rotating wings. As will be apparent from Fig. 1, I may anchor a band 21 around the upper end of the body 10 to cover the sheet 15 in the zone of its anchored webs.

Such a shuttlecock has excellent flight characteristics due to the flexibility of the wing tips and to their protection against buckling. In order to enable them to be compactly packaged and to protect the wings against distortion, I provide a container indicated at 22 of suflicient cross sectional area to receive the shuttlecocks freely within it and having a spindle 23 supported by its bottom wall dimensioned to pass freely through the borles 11 of the bodies thereby to support the shuttlecoc s.

From the foregoing, it will be apparent that my shuttlecocks are well adapted to provide long and satisfactory usage while providing means for compactly packaging them without risk of distorting the position of their wings.

What I therefore claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

l. A shuttlecock comprising a body and a flexible sheet including a plurality of uniformly spaced tabs, said sheet being anchored to said body with its tabs disposed as flight controlling and body rotating wings and including a reinforcement terminating short of the ends of the wings to render said ends relatively more flexible than the remainder thereof.

2. The shuttlecock of claim 1 in which the reinforcement is a flexible sheet secured to the first named sheet.

3. The shuttlecock of claim 1 in which the reinforcement is a flexible sheet secured to the first named sheet and includes a tab portion for each tab of the first sheet and terminating in an apex disposed substantially centrally thereof.

4. A shuttlecock comprising a body of round section having a plurality of spaced slots in its rear face opening through the sides of the body and a flexible sheet having an aperture of slightly less diameter than the diameter of said body and including a plurality of tabs spaced uniformly from each other and defining webs, said sheet surrounding the upper part of said body with the webs anchored in said slots and said tabs disposed as flight controlling and body rotating wings.

5. The shuttlecock of claim 4 and a reinforcing sheet of flexible stock secured to the first named sheet to reinforce it in the zone of its webs and the inner ends of its tabs.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,083,238 OBrien June 8, 1937 2,212,079 Saunders Aug. 20, 1940 2,247,486 Emerson July 1, 1941 2,300,500 Gorelick Nov. 3, 1942 2,302,845 Emerson Nov. 24, 1942 2,338,274 Yancey Jan. 4, 1944 

